Happy Halloween to all!

Ethan was so excited to be Curious George for Halloween that he thought it would be a good idea to wake up at 5:30am! :-) We had a busy, but pretty good Halloween. Ethan and I went to a Halloween party this morning at his friend, Liam's house. Ethan really enjoyed hanging out and showing off for the ladies. At the water table he showed Linnaea, Ashleigh, and Abbie just how hard boys can splash and had to show the adorable Audrey (in pig tails) how strong he really is! We will be in trouble when he is a teenager!! He did not want to wear his Curious George hat, but didn't mind the rest of his costume.

This afternoon we had my second OB appointment. My midwife said everything looks good and the three of us got to hear the heart beat for the first time. Ethan actually thought that was pretty cool. The baby had a really strong heart beat, but it took her a minute or two to find it because he/she was sitting pretty low in my pelvis. I started feeling the baby move when we were on vacation, mainly at night when I am finally "resting" from the day. My next appt is on December 1st and we will get to see the little one on ultrasound. I am tired (some days more than others), but overall feeling pretty good. God has truly blessed me with an easy pregnancy thus far. I know Ethan doesn't grasp that he is going to be a big brother yet, but if you ask him to say "hi" to the baby he will rub my tummy and say "hi". It is so adorable!

Tonight we have a low key evening at home. Ethan is having a blast opening the door for the trick or treaters (maybe next year we will actually go around the neighborhood)!

Hope everyone has a safe Halloween and wonderful weekend!

At home is where your story begins...

I didn’t know what guilt was until I became a mother, it is really unbelievable how much mothers really carry around with them in their hearts. I have tremendous guilt about raising Ethan and this next baby here in Florida, away from our family and friends. I know much of this is brought on by myself, but some of it is brought on by family and friends that don’t intend to put that burden on me, but miss and love us so much that they can’t help but can’t help but share their opinions/feelings.

I had the opportunity to reflect on this several times during our visit to our previous homes in Minnesota and Iowa over the last few weeks. But it was a passing comment that Jared made when we visited Des Moines that stuck with me. We drove past our old "home" and Jared said "there are a lot of memories in that house". Funny thing when you put it in perspective Jake and I lived in that house a very short period of time (less than 2 years), but what he said was so true. That house contains in it to this day many, many memories...Halloween parties, my infamous b-day party that resulted in "Megan and Andrew", bringing our puppy "Visken" home for the first time, the cleaning that took place when we moved in, etc. etc. It wasn't the quantity of time we had in that house, but the quality of of time we spent in that "home" at 1444 43rd Street in Des Moines.

I hope and pray that Ethan and his brother or sister will learn that it is not the quantity of time you have with people, but the quality that creates memories. That traditions are more important than gifts (because in all honesty I have a tough time remembering what I got for gifts for any holiday last year). I promise to do my very best as their mother to help them know our family and friends, but it is ultimately up to them to nurture that relationship.

So....like it or not welcome to our home in Gainesville, Florida and not the one that is made up for company, but our honest and everyday home. Yes, we have weeding to do outside, dishes piled up by the sink, laundry piled high on the dining room table, beds unmade, and toys everywhere. There are things in this house you will never see in pictures though...lots of love and many, many memories. I have no idea how long we will live here or where God will call us to next, but I am truly grateful for our beautiful home, for the friends that we have made here, for the memories in this house, for our favorite places in the area, for the warm sunshine, etc. etc. This is our current "home" and "At home is where your story begins..."

Day 23...Home Sweet Home!

We had a fairly short drive from Pensacola to Gainesville, took us about 6 hours with a stop for lunch in FSU country (Tallahassee). I don't know why it is the closer to home you get though the longer it seems to take. We arrived home finally at 3:30pm (EST). Ahhhh, it is so good to be home! Ethan was so excited to be home that he didn't want to go inside and played outside for a good 20 minutes before finally deciding to go in. Once he finally did get inside we really didn't need to entertain him much as he was quite happy to play with the toys he hadn't seen in 3 weeks and chase Visken and Suzie (our clean house was destroyed in a matter of minutes). Well tomorrow is a crazy day as it is back to work for Jake and MOPS for us (hopefully E won't be a bear in the morning since he has converted his sleeping schedule to CST)!!

Thanks to everyone we visited along the way for your hospitality and companionship. We truly enjoyed seeing all of you...and we are very sorry for those that we missed on this trip. It seems no matter how long we are there we can't manage to squeeze everyone in. (Winter is coming though...and the weather is usually beautiful in Florida in the winter....hint, hint!)

Love to you all!

Day 22...Pensacola Beach

We spent the morning walking along the beach picking up sea shells and digging in the sand. Ethan is totally into digging in any form of dirt these days so he was in heaven in the world's largest sand box. He felt the need to lick the sand on a number of occasions, not sure what that was all about. The afternoon (nap time) was spent watching the Gators cream Kentucky...Go Gators! Then it was back outside to the super awesome kiddy pool. Our hotel has a fairly large pool that is 1/2-1 foot deep with all kinds of cool fountains and sprinklers. In a way I wished we could stay here longer, it is so peaceful and gorgeous, but I am more than ready to be home. I am exhausted and looking forward to sleeping in my own bed...and I truly can't wait to be back in a routine again. Hopefully someday we will be able to come back to Pensacola Beach!

Day 21...Olive Branch, MS (Memphis, TN) to Pensacola, FL!

We spent the day driving through much of Mississippi, what beautiful country we saw today. The weather was foggy and misty in the morning, but cleared off nicely around noon. We continued our geocaching today and after finding a couple of caches in Alabama...we successfully completed our goal of finding a cache in all the states we drove through which was 12! Ethan had a meltdown at Cracker Barrel in Jackson, MS causing us to leave after getting our drinks. I think he was over tired and in all honesty ready to be home. He was a trooper the rest of the day though and took over a 3 hour nap in the afternoon. He is funny because when you are waiting for traffic (like stopped at a stop light) he will frequently say "set, go". We arrived in Pensacola, Florida around 7pm (EST).

Day 19 and 20...Elvis!

We continued our drive south to Memphis, TN on Day 19...uneventful driving with some geocaching along the way. We woke up the next morning however to it pouring (and I really mean pouring). Our plan was to spend that day going to Graceland and seeing the sights in Memphis. We were able to make it to Graceland, which was really cool and fun to see and then decided that since the weather was bad we would spend the afternoon at the Children's Museum so Ethan would have a place to play. Ethan absolutely loved the Children's Museum, I think it was one of his highlights of the trip. We had to pull him away literally kicking and screaming. It got me dreaming again about starting a Children's Museum in Gainesville. Hmmm, I think I may need to do some serious looking into that when we get home. Unfortunately we didn't get to walk around downtown Memphis, which I think would've been a lot of fun but we had a great day despite all the rain. Of course we forgot the camera at the hotel that morning, but with all the rain it was probably safer for our camera to spend the day in the room.

Day 18...Pepin, WI to Hannibal, MO (and Quincy, IL)

We woke up to frost on the car this morning (brrr!), so south we headed with our goal for the day being to make it to Hannibal, MO (home of Mark Twain). We had a nice day of driving and geocaching, fairly uneventful. We saw a camel in Missouri...yup, a camel and it was not my pregnancy brain. We had some delicious pizza along the way at a little diner in southern Iowa. Ethan as always was a trooper in the car. We arrived in Hannibal, but couldn't find a non-scary place to stay so we did a little back tracking to Quincy, IL. We found a beautiful Country Inn and Suites and were able to get some rest before heading off the next morning.

Day 17...Mike and Grace

We spent the morning geocaching...8/8 in 3 hours!

And then off to the Twin Cities in the afternoon with my mom to go and visit my brother and goddaughter, Grace. We met at the Maplewood Mall and it was fun to see how much Ethan and Grace changed since the last time we visited. Grace is an expert crawler and by the next time we see her will probably be an expert at walking. It was great to spend some time with Mike and Grace...we sure miss them!

The hardest part of every trip to the midwest has arrived...the saying "good-bye" and the realization that we will not be able to see everyone or do everything even though we took a longer trip this year. I am ready to head home though and get back into our routine again...and I am looking forward to visiting some new places on the return trip. It is fun to visit "home", but it is fun to explore new places too.

Day 14-16...The Tillmann gang!

It was a busy weekend, but lots of fun! We got to spend the entire weekend with Jake's parents, brother, sister in law, and our three beautiful nieces! It has been quite some time since we have gotten to spend a whole weekend with our nieces, so we were fortunate that it worked out.

Friday before Brian, Jenny, and the girls arrived we got to make lefse with Grandma Beth. It is a great family tradition that I hope we will be able to carry on and lefse is o' so delicious! The gang all arrived soon after and we headed out to a local fish fry, which was one of Jake's wishes for the vacation!

We had a great time playing outside in the leaves over the weekend. Ethan did a little "tractor tipping" with his car (if you don't get it watch Ethan's favorite movie "Cars"). It was so awesome to see Ethan interacting and playing with his cousins. He adored all of them, but especially took to Erika and her cool birdhouse.

We look forward to seeing the Tillmann gang again at Christmas!

Day 13...Grandma Beth!

We got to spend the day hanging out with Grandma Beth! Yup, she too got introduced to a little geocaching, but didn't seem to like climbing over the edge of the bluff to find her first "cache" however. We mainly spent the day at their beautiful home in Prescott, WI. Ethan loved playing in the leaves and running his little car up and down the driveway. We convinced Grandma in the afternoon to help us make an apple pie with apples we brought back from Des Moines (thanks, Chuck)!

Day 12...Caitlin!

Yup, we spent some time geocaching today. The coolest place we visited on our hunt was Frontenac State Park. I must say it was really crazy that Jake and I lived so close to there most of our lives, but yet never visited this gorgeous state park. Don't you just love that view of the Mississippi River in the background? I hope someday we get to come back to hike the trails.

The highlight of the day though was visiting Ethan's first nanny, Caitlin, who is now living in Rochester and attending nursing school. We so enjoyed seeing her and Ethan loved playing with her pumpkin and gourds! We are so blessed to have her part of our family! We miss you, Caitlin...you are welcome in our home anytime!!

Day 11...Megan!

We spent all day on Tuesday with our great friend, Megan. We started off the day with coffee and breakfast at Lily's...yummy! Then introduced Megan to geocaching for a little bit (yes, it would be wise to stay clear of us unless you too want to experience geocaching)! We tried not to torture her too much though and headed to the Twin Cities and did a little shopping. And ended the day with Papa Tronnios pizza at Andrew and Megan's with my mom. Ethan loved playing with all the cool toys at "Auntie Megan's" house! Megan did miss the best part of geocaching that day though, after we dropped her off we came across a beautiful doe and fawn.

We were so lucky to get an entire day with Megan!! It is so hard to say "good-bye".... :-(

Day 7-10...Des Moines, Iowa

We headed off on Friday to spend the weekend in Des Moines (our "home" prior to Gainesville). We stopped along the way and picked up some apples and of course did a little geocaching! We had some neat finds along the interstate...stopped at the Guardian Angel Chapel outside of Mason City, IA and I found a really cool "great hide" coin in one of the caches. It was really great on our drive to see all of the windmills that are being built across the farm land in southern MN and northern IA...go alternative energy!!

We arrived at our great friend, Jared's house around dinner time on Friday. Jared is a regular "Martha Stewart"! :-) We felt so welcome while we were there and can't thank him enough for his hospitality!

We headed out to do some geocaching on Saturday...note our find in one of several cemeteries that we visited that day. (Congrats Jared on find number 600!) We also went out to one of our favorite places in Des Moines; Gray's Lake park which has an awesome view of downtown. Mmmm, yummy milkshakes for lunch at the Drake diner and a tour of our old stomping grounds. We were blessed to have dinner that night with friends Jared, Renee, Ruffus, and the absolutely adorable Gabriella.

Sunday we headed to Knoxville, Iowa to church to visit Pastor John and wouldn't you know it we got there and he was on vacation. (We did however get to visit with him on Monday when we came back to crash his office hours. Pastor John was such an integral part of our time in Des Moines and it was so good to catch up with a great person that we haven't seen in 6.5 years.) Sunday afternoon we got to visit with the pharmacist we use to work with Chuck and his lovely wife Chris. Chuck was a fantastic mentor and our "adopted" dad (he bailed all of us out more than once, I have no idea what we would've done without him)!

We had a great weekend!!

Day Six...Geocachers Anonymous?!

Ok, so we are totally addicted to geocaching (thanks a lot Jared)!! :-) We had a very successful hunt today! We went to see the replica log cabin house that Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in and found a "cash" here, however it was too far wedged in between the logs that we couldn't reach it, darn! The weather was around 60 degrees today, overcast and windy. (Brrr, all my Minnesota blood is definitely gone, I can't imagine what it was like to live in that tiny log cabin in the winter!) We saw some beautiful sites along our drive and "cache hunt": a gorgeous bald eagle and a park at the top of a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. I think we completed around 11 caches today, which was a pretty successful day for us rookies! Ethan enjoyed kicking back for his afternoon snooze! We are off to Des Moines this weekend to visit our friends and favorite places from our previous "home". Have a great weekend!!

Day 5...Happy Birthday Grandma!

Ethan and I got to spend the entire beautiful, sunny day with my mom, which was an extra special treat since it was her birthday. (Jake however spent most of the day at the VA in Minneapolis on a site visit to check out there anti coagulation clinic.) Grandma, Ethan, and I travelled down the river on the Wisconsin side to Winona where we went to the Watkins factory and then ate some Chinese food. Then off to Kellogg, MN where we spent the afternoon at the Lark Toy Factory...a little boy's paradise! Ethan discovered his love of Thomas the train and spent close to two hours playing on the train table. He also got to ride the carousel and the cool "plasma car". We ate ice cream at the Nelson Cheese factory and dinner at the Pickle Factory. What a wonderful day! I of course forgot to bring the camera...darn!

Day Four...Mmmmm!!

Well we had awful weather for our first full day here...rain and more rain with a high temp in the 60s, which wouldn't have been bad if it didn't rain the entire day. Mmmmm, did we eat good food all day though! Jake went and picked us up coffee and quiche at Great River Roasters here in Pepin, WI for breakfast! We then tried to do a little unpacking, with some help from Ethan. Then off to lunch at our favorite coffee house, Lilys, in Red Wing, MN. Ethan discovered his love of banana bread here (he wasn't so sure about the hot apple cider though). Then we headed to Lake City where we ate Papa Tronnios pizza for dinner, thanks to my mom!! I swear I'm going to gain all my pregnancy weight while on this trip, the baby is eating well! O' Ethan has also discovered his love of cheese curds on this trip (for all you Florida people it is deep fried cheese, yes it sounds gross but it is sooo yummy...just ask Ethan)! I had a great evening socializing and shopping at my friend Megan's "At Home America" party, while Jake tried to keep Ethan entertained in the basement with Megan's husband, Andrew! The weather was too terrible to take many beautiful fall scenery pics yesterday, but notice that tree in the background of the second pic. O' how I love fall in the midwest!!

P.S. I forgot to mention a cute Ethan story our last day of driving, right before we got off the interstate to eat lunch, Ethan started proclaiming from the backseat "stop, eat...stop, eat"! Next year on this trip we will probably be hearing "Are we there yet?"!

Day Three...Lincoln, IL to Pepin, WI

Well after three beautiful, sunny days of driving we arrived in Pepin, Wisconsin last night around 8:30pm. We did most of our driving today off the interstate through rural Iowa and Wisconsin. I've made this drive many times and I must say if you have the extra time it was sure nice to get off the interstate. In all honesty, I don't think it really added that much extra time to the trip since we stopped many times along the way to geocache and actually sit down to eat instead of grabbing fast food like we normally do because we have always had our beloved dog, Visken, with us. (Visken is at home with our awesome babysitter, Jennifer!) Ethan was a trooper for the entire trip and content with snacks, books, and DVDs! He was happy to announce "vroom, vroom" when a semi or motorcycle went past. His new favorite words are "yes" and "da-ma" (a combination of dad and mom).

The first pic is of the burrs Jake got covered with going after the first geocache of the day (Ethan and I enjoyed playing at the playground instead)! :-) The next pic is of Ethan "rock climbing" in Le Claire, IA (just outside the Quad Cities) where we stopped for lunch. The last two pics are of the sites of rural Iowa and Wisconsin.

It is great to be here...even if it is raining!

Day Two...Lebanon, TN to Lincoln, IL

Well so far so good...we left Dale and Maggie's house in Lebanon late morning and continued on the journey. Our good friend Jared got us into geocaching (geo-what? just google "geocaching" while he visited us in August, so for Jake's b-day he got at handheld GPS. We stopped a few times along our trip today to geocash. Our first stop was about 10 miles down the road from Dale and Maggie's at Cumberland University. What a beautiful campus and I was the lucky one to spot the "cache" in the gazebo! We continued northward stopping a few times along the way to geocash, eat, potty, fuel up, etc. Our next major stop was at Fort Massac state park in Metropolis, IL. What a gorgeous park right along the river. Ethan enjoyed playing at the playground and digging in the dirt there (and helped mom do a little stretching)! The next stop was to see the giant Superman statue in downtown Metropolis! Cool huh? We then continued on and decided it would be nice to get off the interstate, so we headed up Hwy 51 and stopped to eat pizza at Monical's pizza in Centrilla, IL. We ended day two about 30 miles north of where we planned to, but found a really nice hotel in Lincoln, IL! So far so good...Ethan has done really well, just doesn't like getting back into his car seat after we stop. I'm having a lot of lower back pain, but so far making it ok!

Day One of the "Great Vacation"...Gainesville, FL to Lebanon, TN

Well our journey began on Saturday morning at 9am (EST) when we pulled out of sunny Gainesville headed north. We had a great day of driving, only a little road construction in Georgia, but even made it through Atlanta without any major delays. We arrived at my aunt and uncle's house in Lebanon, TN around 6:30pm (CST). As always it was great to visit with Dale and Maggie and eat some yummy home cooked meals! Ethan's highlight so far was getting to sit in Dale's tractor. His eyes got as big as quarters when Dale started up the tractor, not sure if he thought that part was really cool or if he was scared to death!